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Poppy Appeal organisers are really rolling out the barrel this year in a bid to raise cash.

The appeal for Cambridgeshire will be launched on Saturday with a barrel-rolling contest on Parker’s Piece, using barrels decorated with poppies.

The stunt is being organised by Royal British Legion fundraiser Tony Twigger, who is keen to top the £760,000 collected in the county last year.

In 2015, the appeal got under way with the release of thousands of poppy petals from the tower of Great St Mary’s Church in Cambridge.

Mr Twigger said: “We were keen to find another eye-catching idea for the start of this year’s campaign, so we thought a barrel-rolling event would be good.

“There will be four large barrels, decorated with poppies, and students will race them on Parker’s Piece from 1pm on Saturday.

Launch of the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal in 2015

“Last year’s appeal launch at Great St Mary’s, when thousands of red petals cascaded down, helped us go on to raise more than three quarters of a million pounds, and we would love to do better than that this year if we could."

The Royal British Legion has more than 100 local appeal organisers, each of whom has 70 or 80 collectors.

More details about the RBL, and what the money raised is spent on, are here